Planetary
Overview
Sphinx: Manticore-A-IV

(4th planet out from Manticore A)

A rocky terrestroid planet orbiting Manticore A with a semi-major axis of 2.54 AU (1,273 light
seconds; 21 minutes, 13 light seconds). The planetary’s
physical parameters include a mass of 13.6212^24 kg (2.28 x Earth), density of
5.73 kg/m^3 (1.04 x Earth), and a concurrent surface gravity of 13.171
m/sec/sec. (1.349 x Earth). Planetary orbital velocity is 10.56 km/sec, while
planetary escape velocity is 14.81 km/sec. The local planetary year is 5.2
T-years, and made up of a pattern of 46 months, alternating between 39 local
days and 38 local days, with a leap day every 7 local years.

Geostationary orbit height is 53,216.45 km, and a 500 km orbit height has an
orbital velocity of 10.23 km/sec. The planet has two moons, Perseus,
with a diameter of 672 km and a density of 1.62 kg/m^3, orbiting with a
semi-major axis of 142,000 km, and Bellerophon, with
a diameter of 426 km and a density of 2.12 kg/m^3 and a semi-major axis of
332,000 km. Minor mining operations occur on both moons. Both moons combined
produce tides that are less than 10 percent of Earth’s. This is not unusual, as
Earth is something of an outlier as a near double planet in mass. The planetary
hydrosphere is 68 percent of the planetary surface, and the total land surface
area is 229 percent that of Earth’s.

The planetary axial tilt is 14.51 degrees, and the land horizon is roughly
5.76 km, and the nautical horizon at 12.87 km. The planetary instellation averages roughly 73 W/m^2, or a bit less than
17 percent of Sol’s; this lack of instellation is
compensated for by a much higher greenhouse gas percentage than Earth’s; the
planetary CO2 levels at surface partial pressure can cause rapid
breathing syndrome in new arrivals as their breathing reflex adjusts. When all
factors (albedo, greenhouse gas mix and instellation are accounted for) the average surface
temperature of Sphinx is 285 Kelvin, or 12 degrees Centigrade; this is a full
10 degrees cooler than Earth.

The combination of low axial tilt and low instellation
means the planetary ice caps are prominent, greatly impacting planetary albedo. This has secondary effects on the planet’s climate
and recent geological and biological history.

Recent Geological History

Sphinx has an unusually thick mantle for a planet of its mass and density
and has a lower level of tectonic activity than its mass and size would
otherwise indicate. This is still somewhat higher than Old Earth. Sphinx’s
topography, as is typical of planets in its mass range, is of very deep seas
and mountainous continents. Most of the land on Sphinx is, geologicaly
speaking, fairly young, and large basin-lands are much less prominent on the
planetary map.

This lower than typical level of tectonic activity and assessments of
Sphinx’s Milankovic periodicity (shifts in its
orbital eccentricity and the traverse of its axial tilt) indicate that until roughly
30,000 T-years ago, +/-10,000 T-years, Sphinx’s ice caps extended nearly twice
as far towards the equator as they do now. It is thought that the Stubleford Traps formation in northern Slocum, near the
northern pole, may have released enough CO2 into the atmosphere to
trigger a glacial retreat. This area of active volcanism appears to be over a
mantle plume hotspot and is still active; it is roughly the size of the region
of Brazil on Old Earth.

The low temperature differential between the equatorial oceans and the poles
inhibits ocean current circulation, and the lower axial tilt means that seasons
are less extreme on Sphinx, though they are longer. Sphinx’s equatorial regions
do not get as hot as Earth’s, but the degree to which the climate changes per
degree of latitude away from the equator is lower than on Earth, until the
glacial region is reached, at which point the temperature gradient drops
suddenly.

There is ample biological evidence for a recent glacial retreat on Sphinx.
The Sphinxian climate has gotten warmer and wetter,
and there are many species that still show adaptations such as larger sizes and
thicker coats for a colder climate, and there is a great deal of evidence
indicating that species are moving into new biomes, looking for new or
different food sources.

In a very real sense, the human colonization on Sphinx appears to have
arrived during a period of geology-and-climate induced punctuated equilibrium.

Biological Assay of the Tannerman Gulf Region

On a planet with as many diverse biomes as Sphinx has, a full planetary
biological assay will be the work of a T-century or more. There’s simply
insufficient manpower to do it, and too many pressing needs on the limited
number of biologists available, many of whom do double and triple duty as
veterinarians and as first responders. What follows is excerpts from the
biological assay for the Tannerman Gulf Region,
located on the western coast of Haley’s Land, and is where a number of new
homesteads and freeholds have been established.

Generalized Biome and Climate

The Tannerman Gulf region has a slightly warmer
than average climate for its latitude, due to an offshore warm water current
heading southward along the coast of Haley Land. Much of this air is trapped by
the mountain ranges on the eastern boundaries of the region. The eastern
portion of the ranges are drier, have larger native biomes and have been mapped
by aerial survey and ground penetrating radar for topography, but have no human
settlements as of the time of this writing, and have had only four overland
expeditions in them in the last fifty T-years.

The Tannerman Gulf region has frequent mild rains,
as is typical for the weather patterns off of the ocean, and (for Sphinx) comparatively
mild winters for its latitude; the snow generally lasts for a month or two per
heavy snowfall, melting off, in patches, before the next snowfall hits, and
winters in this region start and end with a rainy season; overall the
“climactic” winter lasts a bit over a T-year. Temperatures in the winter are
mild, going down to -10 to -15 centigrade in the coldest part of the winter.

By contrast, the summers are comparatively cool and pleasant, and the
thicker Sphinxian atmosphere and lower instellation make heat stroke and sunburn almost unheard
of. Scorchingly hot days in the Tannerman
Gulf region get into the high 20s to low 30s.

The abundance of water, and relatively recent soil
formation make the dominant fauna of the region mixed copses of picketwood, with groves of crown oak and near pine
interspersed. Forest fires are sometimes a risk during the height of summer. In
the drier areas to the east of the CopperwallMountains,
other tree species, notably rock wood, have a wider range.

Picketwood

The picketwood makes up the dominant arboreal
habitat in the Tannerman Bay region. It is a
dual-deciduous softwood tree with a fairly quick growth rate, and sends down
runners from its lower braches; these runners become nodal trunks, allowing the
picketwood to asexually spread over large areas. The
actual photosynthetic canopy of picketwoods starts
roughly 20 meters up in a mature trunk, and remains productive well past the
initial rainy season of winter.

Picketwoods offer a moderating impact on the local
biome. Picketwood leaf-mass drop provides compost for
wintering shrubs, which fix nitrogen in the soil for the picket-wood’s root
structures to absorb. The bark is rough gray and black, with four lobed-splay
patterned leaves. Typical height for a mature picket-wood tree is 35-45 meters.

Near Pine

The second most populous tree type, the near pine is an
evergreen softwood with hairy seedpods and a deeply furrowed rough bark.
The trees are highly resinous, and their seeds are edible, if enough effort is
made to extract them from the seedpod; the oil from them can be used for
cooking and is considered something of a delicacy if caught right near the end
of the fall rainy season. The seed pods estivate
through the winter, and when conditions are right, new near pine seedlings grow
rapidly in the spring. When fully mature, near pines form relatively thick trunked trees reaching 62 meters in height, taking nearly
20 T-years to reach this height, and can grow by as much as 3 meters in a
growing season. Near pines appear to be in the process of being displaced by picketwoods and crown oaks.

Red Spruce

The red spruce is altitude adapted, and because of this, appears to have
less competition for its ecological niche; stands of red spruce are seen on the
sides of the mountains to the east of Tannerman Bay,
and aerial surveys show that their range extends into the dryer areas beyond.
Another evergreen, Red Spruce has scaled, very dark blue-green leaves and a
pyramidal form. Its seedpods are smoother than the near pine’s, but the seeds
themselves are bitter tasting with an alkaloid that makes them unpalatable to
Terrestrial life, and causes allergic reactions in some. This same alkaloid allows
the seed pods to pass through the digestive tract of Sphinxian
chipmunks without harm. The name comes from the russet color of its wood, which
is prized for decorative woodwork. Average height of a mature red spruce is
about 17 meters (56 feet). It does not grow as rapidly as a near pine does.

Crown Oak

The crown oak is a dual deciduous tree that produces pine-needle like
filament leaves for the winter months, sheds them in the spring, and generates five-lobed
leaves more suited to a wetter climate in spring to last through the summer
months. It is adapted to a drier climate than the near pine, and as the area
around the Tannerman Gulf dries in adjustment to
climate change, it is opportunistically expanding into ranges left open by
wildfires which devastate the near pine stands. At full height, this tree
reaches a height of 80 meters. Efforts are underway to sustainably
harvest timber from this tree for furniture and flooring, and it is seen as a
potentially valuable export commodity.

Rock Tree

Rock trees appear to be a living fossil species; their tall, straight trunk
and long narrow leaves make them well suited to shorter growing seasons and
extreme cold. They can survive on much less moisture than picketwoods
and near pines, and are more common east of the mountains, though stands of
them are scattered throughout the picketwood forests.
Their name come from the unusually high concentrations
of bonded silicates in the cell walls of the trunk, making for a very fire
resistant and difficult to cut wood. The wood itself is nearly fireproof for
temperatures commonly found in nature. There are several varieties, known for
the color of the lumber, which is labor intensive to gather, and process, but
highly in demand.

Lace Willow

The lace willow is a common understory
runner-plant, and is a relative of the same genus as the picketwood,
though it is most common in marshy areas. It has streamer-like leaves, and the Tannerman Gulf area appears to be the southern edge of its
natural range. The name comes from the pierced meshlike
nature of the leaves, which are used to capture insect analogs and drop them
down as a source of nutrients into the root structure.

Spike Blossom / Spike Thorn

A native Sphinxian flowering shrub which fills
much the same niche as azaleas or laurels, attaining a maximum height of about
3.6 meters. Its leaves are dark green and spade shaped, and it produces very
sharp thorns up to 10 centimeters in length. Its blossoms, which come in many
different colors, are vaguely tulip shaped and are prized for the flavor their
pollen gives to honey produced by imported terrestrial honey bees.

Range Barley

This woody plant is a low moisture adapted relative of the near pine, and
its westernmost range creeps around the eastern mountains bordering the Tannerman Gulf region. It grows to roughly three meters in
height, with a single trunk that’s roughly 3 cm in diameter, and produces very
small forms of the near pine’s needles. During the fall, it produces a lighter
weight seed pod at the crown of the plant; the center of the plant is a woody
pulp that can be ground and used as a flour, or be
made as a porridge. The seed pods are high in tannic acid and have to be
blanched before they're edible, but can also be used to supplement the pulp.
While the Range Barley has a number of similarities to terrestrial grasses in
its growth cycle, and as an edible food source, it is not a wind-blown
self-pollinating grass such as might be found on Old Earth. It is a curiousity because it appears to
be a recent mutation. It is thought that tuskelopes
(see below) eat range barley when they can find stands of it, but there are few
areas in the Tannerman Gulf region where picketwood and range barley grow near each other.

Tanapple

A native Sphinxian fruit shrub that grows in moist
moderate climates, the fruiting mechanism is triggered by environmental factors
which have so far proven difficult to isolate; it is considered, after the
range barley, to be the likeliest native Sphinxian
plant to become domesticated and cultivated for food. The shrub grows in the understory area beneath picketwoods
and crown oaks, and has a blade-like leaf structure. The fruiting body shows up
after the first snowfall each year, and is a multi-segmented fruiting body
that’s the color of a green apple, in a thick rind reminiscent of terrestrial
citrus. It is tart, and sweet, and used locally for preserves, jams, pies, and
as a garnish for poultry and ham.

Native Fauna

Nearly all Sphinxian life forms have hexapedal bilateral symmetry, and the species near the Tannerman Gulf region follow this body plan. In areas where
the dominant plant life is the picketwood, the middle
set of and forward set of limbs are commonly dual purpose, with the mid-limbs
configured for grasping and locomotion and the forelimbs specialized for
grasping itself.

Nearly every species of animal on Sphinx is exothermic; this is nearly a
requirement for surviving the long winters. Unlike plants, which remain in the
same place, animal species tend to migrate, in response to seasonal changes,
mating habits, and pursuit of food sources. There is a large amount that is
unknown about Sphinxian biota, even in this area. It
is a widely held contention among Sphinxian Forestry
Service biologists that there are at least two medium-to-large herbivorous
species that have not been directly or indirectly observed yet.

Most Sphinxian animal life—even many species with “bird-like” names, more
closely resemble Terrestrial mammals than birds or reptiles. The dividing line
on local naming conventions is based in part on the whim of the first
researcher to write a report on the species, and secondarily based on whether
the species lays eggs for overwintering while the
parents estivate, or whether they remain active year
round and bear live young.

It is important, again, to emphasize that what is known about species on
Sphinx is more broadly defined by what we don’t know than what we actually do
know.

Chipmunk

The Sphinxian chipmunk looks virtually nothing
like its Terrestrial namesake, being the size of a small dog. The animal is a
full-year active exothermic burrowing husker that lives off of the seed pods
and fruits of the understory plant-life. The
forelimbs and mid-limbs allow a little bit of arboreal movement. Its range
appears to be tightly constrained by the picketwood
environment. They appear to have a natural life span of two Sphinxian
years, and are opportunists. Their burrowing ability allows them to dig through
foundations and into greenhouses. In some areas of human settlements, they are
on their way towards displacing Mankind’s oldest companion, the rat, as the
greatest danger to household food storage and garbage disposal.

Cragsheep

A reclusive species referred to as a cragsheep has
been spotted by aerial survey in the mountains defining the eastern border of
the region that, based on photographic evidence, looks to be in the 100 kg
range. The species itself follows the hexapedal body
plan, but with the middle and forelimbs somewhat geared for grasping and
climbing. The rear limbs and mid limbs allow the species to make impressive
leaps, and it is native to the uplands and hilly regions. It is not known if it
is an egg-laying or live birth reproductive animal, but given its size, it is
assumed to be live birth. While the cragsheep is an
herbivore, there appear to be no analogs to it native to the lower regions on
the western side of the mountains.

Near Beaver

A Sphinxian mammal that appears to be distantly
related to the chipmunk, these creatures live in aquatic and swampy biomes, and
are omnivorous, but eat predominantly vegetable matter. In length, they are
approximately 50 centimeters long, and their dentition is what gives them their
name, though their body plan is less streamlined than a terrestrial beaver’s.
The near beaver does bring down trees—avoiding
the rockwoods—to
make dams and convert sloughs into ponds. Subspecies of near-beaver have been
found in every biome on Sphinx that humans have visited to date, save for the
tundra and ice cap regions.

Range Bunny

The range bunny is the pseudomonotreme competitor
for the niche occupied by the chipmunk; like the other Sphinxianpseudomonotremes it lays egg at the first rainy
season, burrows, and hibernates on top of them throughout the winter. While not
as active in the winter, and not as opportunistic, the range bunny is capable
of fairly rapid population growth every spring, and is of some concern to the
Royal Agricultural Services as a possible pest eating human food crops. Its
range of diet includes most leafy plant structures, and it is not as tied to
the picketwood biome as the chipmunk is. The range
bunny is known for its two stage loping gait, and it relies on speed to get
away from ground based predators. It naturally avoids the picket woods if it
can, due to the threat of arboreal predators such as the condor owl.

Wood
Rat

The wood rat is prey species of the crown oak biome, and is roughly 2 kg in
mass. They are distinctly arboreal, and resemble mammalian six legged skinks in
some ways. They are full-year active placental in their reproductive strategy,
though there are anomalous reports calling them marsupials. It is not entirely
certain if they’re native to the Tannerman Gulf biome
or are immigrants moving with the increased range of the crown oak; they bear
roughly the same resemblance to Sphinxian chipmunks
that Terrestrial rats do to Terrestrial chipmunks. The creatures will gnaw on
wood to keep their incisors sharp, and have been known to do damage to lumber
products used for human use. The water-seal compound used for terrestrial lumber
appears to be a candy lacquer for them, though it also kills them due to
enzymatic incompatibility and intestinal blockage.

Tuskelope

The Tuskelope is a cold-weather adapted prey
species, vaguely resembling a six-legged cross between a musk-ox and a boar;
they stand anywhere from 1.3 to 1.8 meters high at the shoulder for an adult,
with a peak weight of 350 kg. They have large tusks that they use to break up
ice pack and to dig up roots. Their primary defense mechanism is to flee into
scrub that larger predators cannot pursue into, and to turn tusks onto
predators only when flight is not an option, or when faced with a predator that
is taller than they are.

Tuskelope population densities are too low to
support the hexapuma sightings in the Tannerman Gulf region. The best working hypothesis is that
the hexapumas are recent interlopers, and the tuskelopes provided them with the calorie sources to spark
a population boom, followed by a tuskelope population
crash.

Condor
Owl

The condor owl would strike any native of Old Earth as a particularly
egregious case of “name does not fit the physical description of the animal.”
It was, however, originally named by a xenoiologist
from the Hesier System, where the original names had
already been applied to some very strange creatures. Needless to say, it does
not, in fact, resemble either an Old Earth condor or an owl—or, for that matter, a bat or a flying squirrel,
which it more closely resembles. The condor owl is a crepuscular gliding or
flying predator that attempts to swoop and catch prey, then drop it on rocks
from a great height. It is a hexapedalSphinxian mammal, with the fore-limbs specialized into
wings, and folds of skin that give additional gliding and lifting surface when
the midlimbs are extended, with the back four limbs
holding grasping talons. The eyes are very large and forward facing, and are
the most owl-like of its features.

A typical condor owl has a body mass of under 6
kilograms and a total body length in excess of 150 centimeters, and a wingspan
of nearly twice that. The hide is covered in down, and the animal lays eggs and
estivates over them through the winter. The condor
owl often hunts in social groups of six to eight, and they have been known to
arrange rocks with the jagged points up to better finish off dropped prey, a
precursor to tool usage that bears further investigation.

Hexapuma

Hexapumas are the best indirect evidence that
biomes have shifted recently. A hexapuma has a body
length that can reach five meters in length, as much as half of that tail, and
the largest specimens encountered have weighed 800 kilograms or more. Sphinxian Forest Service biologists class hexapumas as the native wildlife most dangerous to human
inhabitants, in part because so little is known about them, save that they seem
to have a shortage of prey animals, and have no compunctions about treating
humans as a remedy to that problem.

What is currently known about hexapumas is that
the range in size between (apparently) mature individuals is quite wide—in the Tannerman Gulf
area, they routinely run 3.5 meters or longer in main body length, while closer
to the equator, genetically related samples are as small as 2 meters long and
half the body mass; it is thought that there is severe selection pressure on hexapumas to have smaller children to deal with a prey
pattern shift to smaller prey animals; there are numerous adaptations on the hexapuma, ranging from the depth of its coat to its foot
construction, that indicate it was originally adapted to a much colder climate.

The advisories on hexapumas are to avoid them if
at all possible, and to notify the Sphinxian Forest
Service immediately if one is sighted, or if scat or other indicators is known.
In particular, the Sphinxian Forestry Service is
interested in finding out what they eat, and how often they mate and where they
raise their young.

Mountain Eagle

One of the handful of bird analogues of the planet
Sphinx, the mountain eagle may in fact be an oviparous mammal that has evolved
quills that function nearly identically to feathers. They are true flyers, as
opposed to the condor owl, and have only been seen at a distance; they have two
pairs of wings that between them make a single lifting surface, and in their
flight patterns, tend to be gliders. They appear to be carrion feeders or
opportunist feeders. Due to the higher temperatures on the eastern side of the Copperwall Mountains, they are more common there, and the
eastern edge of the Tannerman Gulf region appears to
be the westernmost edge of their range.

Peak Bear

The peak bear is found near the southern edge of the Tannerman
Gulf area, and is native to the mountains forming that edge of the biome. Very
little is known about the peak bear aside from the fact that it can locomote in a centauroid gait,
and that it doesn’t seem to regard humans as much of a threat. It appears to be
omnivorous, though the portion of its diet based off of plants versus prey
animals is unknown at this time. Specimens that have been photographed have
stood nearly 1.4 meters tall at the mid-hip, and 2 meters tall at the top of
the head when in centauroid posture—overall body length has been in excess of 4 meters
total. Peak bears may be the competing predator causing hexapumas
to range farther north. While current land grants are more than 100 km away
from the peak bear’s estimated range, it does represent a concern for the
future expansion of human colonization.